The way we communicate with the different players in AFS can make a huge difference in how effective we are as leaders. Each stakeholder (staff members, your volunteers, families, participants, schools, etc) have different needs when it comes to communicating with you, so it can be a key to success to pick up some handy skills. This section will give you practical tools and practices that you can incorporate in the ways you connect with your volunteers.
6 strategies for effectively communicating with volunteers
Communication is key to building and maintaining a well-working volunteer force – on both the local and national levels. These 6 tips will help you identify best practices to keep in touch with your volunteers.
Active Listening
Listening to answer is a common phenomenon. This article will help you understand the benefits of learning to listen for the sake of listening and understanding. Active listening is a key tool to be able to connect to your people and make them feel heard.
Why your business needs dissenters – TED Talk
The vast majority of people tend to loath non-conformity and can be threatened by dissenters – the people that will debate our ideas, ask loads of questions, challenge our beliefs. Facing such reactions, we can sometimes feel underappreciated or questioned. This talk will help you understand how debate is a driver of innovation.
How to motivate people to do good for others – TED Talk
When managing active stakeholders, it is given that these are people who want to do good. But how do we convince external stakeholders to do altruistic deeds, to join our mission? This talk will walk you through 3 easy practices that can help bring out the willingness to do good in people. It will also illustrate each practice with easy-to-grasp examples from the world.